The biography of Claude-Joseph Bonnet is currently being translated into English. The book is expected to be available before the end of 2024.

Here’s a presentation of the book. If you are interested in buying the English version, please contact us.

You can also purchase the French version if you like. We ship worldwide at moderate cost.

Claude-Joseph Bonnet, born at the onset of the French Revolution, played a significant role in the 19th-century industrial revolution as a silk manufacturer. Leaving his native Bugey for Lyon at the age of 17, he rose as a true self-made man within the Lyon silk industry, specializing in high-quality black silk. His rise, spanning the First and Second Empires, was marked by commercial success, making the Bonnet firm one of the most prominent in Lyon, selling both domestically and internationally, and forming exclusive partnerships with emerging department stores. Bonnet dedicated part of his career to founding an industrial boarding school for girls in his hometown, sparking social and political debate at the time. Liberal in business but morally conservative, Claude-Joseph Bonnet embodied strict paternalism. He was reviled by labor activists and the socialist press during the Canut Revolts and the Revolution of 1848, and his effigy was hanged during protests, along with those of other manufacturers. A prominent figure in 19th-century Lyon, he was one of those « conquering bourgeois » who devoted their lives to building their enterprise.

The result of extensive research by historian Henri Pansu, conducted between 1960 and 2012, this « total » history essay navigates through Claude-Joseph Bonnet’s entrepreneurial journey and that of his immediate successors, the political upheavals of 19th-century France, the technological advancements in the silk industry, as well as family and social history. Originally published in two volumes in 2003 and 2012 under the title Silk and Society in Lyon and Bugey in the 19th Century, this book is now presented in a revised and condensed edition.

Buy the French version of the book